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MassDosage writes "In a remarkable show of good timing Presentation Patterns turned up on my desk for review within days of me having been asked to give a presentation at a large tech conference. So I decided to read the book as I worked on my presentation and apply any lessons learned as I worked my way through it. The word "patterns" in the book's title will be known to most software developers as a reference to the seminal 'Gang of four' software design patterns book which codified common solutions to software problems. The concept of patterns originated in building architecture with the idea being that by categorizing and naming solutions to problems, a common vocabulary could be built up that allowed practitioners in a certain field to communicate more effectively. This was hugely successful and has spawned the idea of looking for patterns in many other areas which is where this book comes in." Read on for the rest of Mass Dosage's review.

tekgoblin (1675894) writes "Were you a fan of the original Goldeneye on N64? Well this 5 year Half-Life 2 mod called GoldenEye Source has just come out of beta and fully released free. The game is a fan-made creation with the objective to bring the original experiences from GoldenEye on N64 back to life. I remember spending hours upon hours playing Goldeneye on the N64 and was sad seeing it go."Link to Original Source

dkd903 (1156359) writes "Facebook is leaving no stone unturned to push itself into the lives of all it’s users. Facebook has now launched a new technique that will force users to make Facebook.com as their browser’s homepage. Now when you open your Facebook account, you can see this bar at the top of the page which reads: Drag this to your home button to see what’s happening with friends as soon as you open your browser."Link to Original Source

dkd903 (1156359) writes "Well now we have official words from Canonical. Rick Spencer, the Engineering Director of Ubuntu at Canonical has said the Ubuntu is not moving to a rolling release. While a rolling release does have many things I like, since there has been no official word Mark Shuttleworth or anyone from Canonical I was somewhat hesitant to believe in it."Link to Original Source

hlovy (613473) writes "Nobody ever planned on a short-lived TV series having such a lasting impact on society, but it has. And this is true whether you like Star Trek or not. It doesn't matter that the show's medical devices looked like scavenged pieces of plastic the Desilu studio prop department glued together on a low budget. Star Trek is part of our collective mythology. And in the endless loop of life imitating art, many of the futuristic technologies introduced on the show are now a reality. That's why we decided to compare some of today's medical breakthroughs with those envisioned by science fiction TV writers, producers and actors more than 40 years ago.

So, for our list of four ways real life medicine is catching up with Star Trek, here are the ground rules for all the hardcore Trekkers outthere. We are sticking to The Original Series, where the gadgets, the technology, the basic assumptions of how the future might look are in their most primordial state. Each medical device or medicine was more of an idea, a basic concept of what things should do rather than anything that got too bogged down in actual science. As the later spinoffs got rolling, real science often got in the way of simplytelling the story. Ultimately, the in-depth scientific explanations of the later series will likely turn out to be wrong, while The OriginalSeries will forever retain a colored-plastic purity.

Goffee71 (628501) writes "Breaking up is never easy to do, but the split between Oracle and the new LibreOffice team has been one of the more traumatic recent events in IT. CMSWire asked the new team's Italo Vignoli what went on behind the scenes and what can we expect to see now from Libre/OpenOffice.

Example Q: Did the process of separation feel like a "rush for the exits" or was it a hard decision for some people?

A: It has been a hard decision for most people, as they have been instrumental for building the OOo brand in most countries. We still believe in OOo, although we do not believe in a corporate-sponsored free software project.

We feel that corporate-sponsored free software projects belong to previous decades, as free software was not perceived as good enough to be self-sustaining. After 20 years, free software is mature enough for a self-sustaining business model, with corporate sponsors as members of the community."Link to Original Source

1sockchuck (826398) writes "A large data center project in Reno, Nevada plans to generate its own power from natural gas and renewables, allowing tenants to use the local utility as a backup. As the cost and capacity of power becomes the driving force in data centers are built, The Reno Technology Park is expanding the traditional role of the data center builder. The developer plans to double as a power company, providing at least 440 megawatts of on-site power generation from natural gas, wind, solar and geothermal sources."Link to Original Source

dkd903 (1156359) writes "Last week Mark Shuttleworth announced plans for Ubuntu to move away from X towards Wayland. Granted it is a long a time away, but a lot of people commended Canonical for such an important decision, which can potentially take desktop Linux to the next level (graphics wise).

Well here is more good news, from Red Hat this time. In a post in the Fedora mailing list, Adam Jackson of Red Hat, has said that Fedora will eventually switch to Wayland. Like Shuttleworth, he also said that Wayland is not stable enough and did not put an exact time frame. However, he said that Wayland might be packaged in Fedora 15 for developers to play around with it."Link to Original Source